Uzbekistan, Tashkent, May 11 / Trend D. Azizov /
Uzbekistan will begin to vaccinate children against poliomyelitis May 17, Deputy Minister of Health, Chief Sanitary Doctor of the Republic Bakhtiyar Niyazmatov said at a press conference.
He said that vaccination will be carried out within the national immunization days against poliomyelitis, carried out in accordance with the Agreement on Cooperation between the Ministry of Health, WHO and UNICEF.
The campaign will be held in two rounds - from May 17-23 and June 7-13 this year. About 2.89 million children aged 1-5 are planned to be vaccinated.
"Uzbekistan received about seven million doses of a specially developed vaccine through WHO and UNICEF, effective against strains of poliomyelitis, which caused an outbreak of disease in other countries.
Conditions for their keeping have been created in all 7,000 health care facilities involved in the immunization.
More than 5,000 vaccination teams have been formed to vaccinate children living in remote and inaccessible areas of the country.
The Republican staff established under the Ministry of Health coordinates a campaign.
He said that vaccination is carried out because there was the potential threat of infection on the territory of Uzbekistan from neighboring countries.
"Repeated rounds of immunization can prevent poliovirus and develop a strong immunity in children", he said.
Chief sanitary doctor recalled that there was no case of poliomyelitis in Uzbekistan since 1996. WHO recognized the country free from poliomyelitis in 2002.
"Immunization against poliomyelitis is conducted in a planned manner. The level of campaign coverage in the country is 98-99 percent. The remaining 1-2 percent is mostly kids who have contraindications for such a vaccination, " he said.